Earmarked paternity leave and the relative income within couples

TY - JOUR

T1 - Earmarked paternity leave and the relative income within couples

AU - Druedahl, Jeppe

AU - Ejrnæs, Mette

AU - Jørgensen, Thomas Høgholm

PY - 2019/7

Y1 - 2019/7

N2 - We study the causal link between earmarked paternity leave policies and the relative income share of women within couples. We utilize high quality administrative longitudinal register data for the universe of Danish individuals with a reform in 1998, which increased the earmarked paternity leave of fathers from two to four weeks. We estimate that the reform increased the women's intra-household share of labor income with around 1.2 percentage points in the years following childbirth. We estimate a significant increase up to seven years after childbirth. We furthermore find that the effect is primarily driven by women employed in the private sector.

AB - We study the causal link between earmarked paternity leave policies and the relative income share of women within couples. We utilize high quality administrative longitudinal register data for the universe of Danish individuals with a reform in 1998, which increased the earmarked paternity leave of fathers from two to four weeks. We estimate that the reform increased the women's intra-household share of labor income with around 1.2 percentage points in the years following childbirth. We estimate a significant increase up to seven years after childbirth. We furthermore find that the effect is primarily driven by women employed in the private sector.

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0165-1765

VL - 180

JO - Economics Letters

JF - Economics Letters

ER -